Health Buzz: Updates on Women’s Health Items

In today’s Health Buzz, we have two brief topics that deal with women’s health: mammograms and lactation.

For those covered by the State Employee Health Benefit, the state has confirmed that all mammograms, regardless of the diagnosis on the claim, will process as covered 100 percent with no cost share to the member.

On lactation, we were asked to remind members that the Executive Branch Collective Bargaining Agreement has an article that deals with nursing mothers:

19.16.1 Mother’s Health Care: The Employer, when feasible, shall provide a private area and sufficient time for full-time or regularly scheduled part-time employee postnatal mothers to tend to lactation needs.

That said, the Affordable Care Act included a similar change to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which affects all workplaces. From “Break Time for Nursing Mothers”:

Employers are required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” Employers are also required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”

Do you have other health benefit questions? Send them to Chris Porter at cporter@seiu1984.org and put “Ask Chris” in the subject line. Chris is our Compensation and Benefit Research Specialist who will advocate for members experiencing challenges with their contracted medical benefits. We’ll post answers to commonly posed questions in this column.